How the English Language Lost Its Best Letters | The Death of þ & ð

Video Description

Perhaps the greatest tragedy since the Norman Conquest is the loss of the enigmatic Anglo-Saxon letters of Thorn and Eth, the letters used to represent the 'th' sound in Old English. One of these letters, thorn, started life as a rune, invented by the early Germanic peoples before being incorporated into Old English manuscripts when they converted to Christianity. Eth is an adaption of a Latin letter. While English still keeps the sound, it's lost the letters, unlike several other Germanic languages like Icelandic, Faroese, Elfdalian and North Frisian. History with Hilbert Merch: https://teespring.com/fr/stores/history-with-hilberts-market Go Fund My Windmills (Patreon): https://www.patreon.com/HistorywithHilbert Dive into Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/UMzHMtA?fbclid=IwAR371psEo9VsqZ36Ukpuh6xS9YzY2xuV07qfHMcnsUIZjHgzovHaUdWw9ec Join in the Banter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HistorywHilbert Enter the Fray on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HistorywHilbert/ Indulge in some Instagram..?(the alliteration needs to stop): https://www.instagram.com/historywithhilbert/ #English #learnenglish #interestingfacts